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'Doctor Zhivago' to Sing on Broadway in Spring

Good musicals are made in heaven … or some such place.

￼Doctor Zhivago is heading to Broadway this spring.

The new Broadway musical — based on Boris Pasternak’s Nobel Prize-winning 20th-century epic, which also became a beloved 1965 David Lean film — will begin previews on March 27 before an April 21 opening at the Broadway Theatre.

The show will be produced on Broadway by Anita Waxman, Tom Dokton, Latitude Link, Ted Hartley/RKO Stage and Chunsoo Shin, with Joe Corcoran, J. Todd Harris, The Pelican Group and John Frost. Junkyard Dog Productions is executive producer.

"Doctor Zhivago has a profound and exquisite intimacy," said director McAnuff in a statement. "The story is about five people — three men in love with one woman and two women in love with one man. While they are so close to us that we can reach out and touch them, they also live out their lives over a vast stretch of Russian history from the streets of Moscow to the icy slopes of the Ural Mountains."

"The heart of our story is the discovery that love through art can survive even the most unimaginably violent and turbulent times," continued McAnuff. "Working on this has given us all on the team the kind of emotional inspiration that we hope to pass on to New York audiences. The story of Doctor Zhivago is just as pertinent today as it was 50 years ago. It continues to advance on the edge of time."

Casting will be announced at a later date. The first block of tickets will go on sale Nov. 10.

Doctor Zhivago received its world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2006. In 2011, a revised production opened to critical acclaim at the Lyric Theatre in Sydney.

Lean's 1965 film adaptation of Pasternak’s work was nominated for 10 — and won 5 — Academy Awards. It starred Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin and Tom Courtenay. Adjusted for inflation, the 1965 title is the eighth-highest-grossing film of all time.